Garden Week 2 (and decorating!)

A new addition to the prettiness of my yard!

Well, I almost hate to post now (because I know this weekend is going to be a big weekend for our garden/yard), but we've been up to a lot recently too!  The above pictures is filled with new additions!  (Well, the ladder's been there since last year to be honest.)  I want to hang the windsock up a peg higher, but I'm going to have to wait for Mike to get home and help with it.  So, I guess I should go in order and tell you exactly what you're seeing!  (There will be close up pictures of some of it later in the post :) .)  The deer are two Christmas deer (the metal ones that are covered in lights) that I'm up-cycling into garden decorations!  (I actually think I have a third one downstairs to add to the little family!)  The story behind the deer is that my mother in law found them in someone's trash (don't judge!) and new that I would love them!  I did and do, but when we plugged them in to test them for Christmas, we realized all the lights were bad.  Life was busy and they got stuck under the patio to wait until I had time to remove all the lights and restring them.  

A close up of parent and baby deer (they don't have names yet).

Well, Christmas came and went and they never got pulled out.  One of our big goals for this summer (aside from growing an epic garden with lots of good food!) is to really make the backyard a place we enjoy being.  Last year we were just so busy that it didn't really seem important to spend a lot of time outside, but once winter hit, we really missed not having taken advantage of being out there.  So, we're putting in some raised bed gardens (we're going to use Ana White's plan) to go with our pool garden and we're spending some time reorganizing stuff and actually (*gasp*) trying to decorate it a bit.  In this process, we were cleaning out under our little "fake carport" (plus the weather has been nice enough to do it lately) and I saw these two (the other is downstairs since it never got brought outside).  I have been stalking some different blogs and Pintrest trying to come up with cute and unique ways to not only attract bees and other pollen spreading creatures, but to make our yard a bit more fun!  I've been seeing (especially on Pintrest) a good deal of the wire frames with vined plants growing up them.  Then the idea struck me!  I could use these deer for the same idea!

A cute dragonfly decoration (and hanging hook) I found at Dollar Tree!  The dragonfly's wings move when the wind blows!

So, I started by removing the corded lights.  Boy, was that a big pain ever!  Towards the end (because I knew the lights weren't worth saving) I ended up cutting some of the wires to speed the process along!  Then, I went and set them up where I thought I wanted them, (in this process I misplaces the little deer's ears, but I found them after asking Saint Anthony for a little help!) staked them down, and sized up the pots (because that is one of the black walnut trees, pretty much anything I plant is going to have to be in a pot!).  The idea is that the vined flowers will grow up out of the pots and that I can  train them onto the deer (so in a way it'll look like they're eating them!).  I'm super excited about this!

"But, wait, Ashley" you may say, "those sheppard's hooks look awefully familiar!  Didn't your bird feeders used to sit on those?"

A new view of the flower garden!  (and it's decorations!)

Why, yes, yes they are!  Mike and I finally made the call to buy one of these bird feeder poles and doesn't it look nice!  (I love this new bird feeder because of it's size, stabilitiy, and the fact that water doesn't get trapped in my seed and grow things, but no matter how I hung it, there was either too much sway in the cord (so breezes would knock all the bird seed out by causing the feeder to hit the sheppard's hook) or the squirrels could reach it and pull all the seed out!)  I still have to figure out what I'm going to put on the other side of the feeder.   You can't really tell what it is in this picture, but as far as decorations go (aside from the pole) there is on the left a little snail metal pinwheel, on the right a cloth flower pinwheel, and a new fence around it (to keep puppies out).  Now, I'm both a little excited and nervous about these pinwheels!

The lilies I thought had died are now peeking up through the other bulb plant (the one that was here when we moved in!)

If you remember, over a year ago, we had a mole/groundhog thing attack our garden and the little pinwheels I had put in there!  Well, I've been finding those tell tale mounds and broken earth through this little flower garden lately.  These pinwheels (although they were still purchased at the dollar store) are sturdier than the little ones...and well, bigger too.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the little fella just moves along to a different yard.  So far, there are some tiny tiny sprouts in this flower garden (didn't do a close up of this flower garden or the one by the door because the growth was so minuscule), but I may end up having to try planting something else.  (I now have a really nice printed list of plants and flowers that are not bothered by the Black Walnut poison.)

The back "deck".  Pardon the mess, we've been reorganizing and are getting ready to pack the van for the L.A.R.P.

I really really really hate this "deck" thing.  It's not big enough to put our table and chairs on (and it's way too close to the backdoor for that.  If you look up the steps, the door is right there!) and because of how close it is to our door, there isn't really much to do with it.  Mike thought about taking it down, but it's currently acting as a step for those stairs (and I'm slightly terrified of what we would find under it!).  I've seen some people turn decks like these into "garden decks" but that is normally only in apartment/duplex situations where there isn't a yard option.  So, I've decided I'm going to make it direct the flow of traffic in the yard.  Back in between the stairs and that brick thing (no idea where that goes at all) is where the "wildflower" flower garden is.  On the side closest to the pool garden (and where we're planning on setting up our raised bed gardens) we're going to grow 4 container tomatoes (we'll probably have a few extra plants in one of the gardens) and on the side closest to the camera, I have made a string trellis for the three pots of snap peas (and a few vine flowers) to grow up.  I'm hoping that this will at least make this area look somewhat pretty and act as a natural draw for pollinating bugs!  I also have last year's entry way rug (one of the pets got sick all over it and the only way I could clean the spot was to take it outside and hose it down...and it's stayed there) in the middle of the deck.  I think when we build me this chair, I'll probably leave it on the deck for my relaxing in the little bit of sun we get!  So, any ideas on what else to do to this little area are welcome!  The deck is going to have to be sanded and painted (or something) this year it seems, so maybe putting some color in there will perk it up too!

Our pool garden is really doing well with stuff starting!

Our pool garden has lots of baby herbs growing in it (we decided to use this as an herb garden mostly this year).  It always amazes me at quickly plants grow!  I can't wait to see them all tall and yummy!  I did plant a small "little container" garden of some herbs that sits in my kitchen windowsill (one of the few windows that actually gets light in our house).  Even my awesome Yoda goblet thing has something planted in him (chives for the record so it looks like he has some stylin' hair!).  I'm excited to see those guys grow too (and hopefully we can figure out a way to keep them alive all winter!).  The front flower garden isn't here mostly because I forgot to take a picture when I was doing photos.  The tulips are doing well.  There's a few sprigs coming up here and there but I'm not sure if it's weeds or flowers yet!  (And that stupid ground cover is coming back again!)  I moved some tulip bulbs from a pot I grew them in last year (the green one) into the front garden so that next year there should be more tulips!  I replanted the green container with some butterfly bush and catnip.  In the yellow one, I planted bluebonnets (I am from Texas y'all) and some forget-me-knots.  We moved the patio furniture out (and after I finish this post I'm going to go move it back) so it could dry out a little bit, so our porch looks a bit crazy.  The strawberries haven't showed any sign of growth yet :( .

A beaded "ornament" I made to hang on the bottom of the strawberry pot!

For someone who is still very picky about how she'll eat strawberries, I sure am disappointed that I haven't seen growth yet.  It has only been a week though.  Today we have new neighbors moving in.  So far I haven't gotten the best impression of them, but we all know what it's like to move and how stressful it can be, so I'm hoping we'll get along!  Tonight we're having a LARP weapon making party BBQ so I'm expecting to have a good time!  I guess that sums up this week.  Oh!  I was able to drive today (and boy did that feel freeing!)  (I slightly herniated a disk in my back a week ago Monday and have been slowly trying to (as my doctor advised) stretch and get back to my normal routine.  I still can't bend over and touch my toes, but I do have a lot of my mobility back as long as I'm not trying to lift anything heavy.)  Now, I better get scootin' so I can clean my filthy house (it's not that bad, but poor Mike just isn't the housekeeper I am ;) and he was working on taking care of me and doing the housework and working full time!) for tonight!